Horner weighs in on FIA v F1 debate over Andretti-Cadillac's potential entry
The FIA and F1 are odds over welcoming new F1 teams to the grid.
There’s concerns from F1, and the teams themselves, about how a new team would impact the current prize pool.
If an 11th team joined the grid for 2023, simply-speaking, the existing 10 teams would receive less prize money than they did for 2022 for finishing in the same championship position.
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has been very open to allowing new entries, such as Andretti-Cadillac, while F1 has had a lukewarm view thus far.
Both the FIA and F1 - whether that’s Liberty Media or FOM - need to be in agreement when weighing up on allowing new teams into the sport.
In an interview with RACER, Horner explained how he thinks having Andretti on the grid would be “exciting” but admitted a solution would need to be found with regards to the finances.
“This view would be common to any team — it’s irrelevant,” Horner said.
“As I said, to have the Andretti brand and name and Cadillac in F1 would be fantastic, and hopefully a solution can be found.
“You can understand the FIA, they’ve got no financial consequence of this because they don’t participate in the prize fund, and they’d receive further entry fees for more teams coming in.
“So you can understand the FIA potentially wanting more teams on the grid. But I think they need to find alignment with the commercial rights holder, and the 2026 Concorde Agreement would seem the right place to deal with that.
“It just needs all parties to have a sensible conversation and agree something that is practical and workable.”
The FIA v F1 battle is set to roll on with reports emerging of a $20bn bid from Saudi Arabia to take over the sport.
Ben Sulayem took to Twitter again to voice his concerns over a potential bid, while F1 rebuked him with a letter to the FIA.
